Tel Aviv

TAROM airlines has announced that it will resume its regular flights from Bucharest to and from Tel Aviv.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that diplomacy to end the Gaza bloodshed has made progress, but warned more time was needed.
      
"We have certainly made some steps forward, but there is still work to be done," Kerry said in Jerusalem as he started a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
      

Washington's top diplomat flew into Tel Aviv Wednesday, defying a US flight ban, to try to broker an end to violence in Gaza, which has killed hundreds and hobbled Israel's main airport.
      
Secretary of State John Kerry jetted in from Cairo to Ben Gurion airport, with reporters banned from reporting the trip until his custom Boeing 757 touched down.
      

Air Serbia suspends flights to Tel Aviv

BELGRADE -- Serbian air carrier Air Serbia has announced that it has suspended all flights to Tel Aviv in Israel due to the crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Major airlines blocked flights to Israel July 23 after a rocket from Gaza struck near airport runways, as the U.N. chief urged an end to a conflict that has killed 636 Palestinians and 31 Israelis.

As the violence entered its 16th day, neither Israel or Hamas appeared willing to end hostilities, despite days of diplomatic efforts to coax them into a truce.

At least 512 Palestinians have died and more than 3000 have been injured since the start of Israel's offensive in the Gaza strip earlier in July.

The data from Hamas-controlled Gaza's Health Ministry came as the UN Security Council urged a ceasefire between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants.

Israel advised its citizens on July 19 not to travel to Turkey, citing "the public mood" after heated protests there against Israel's ground offensive into Gaza.

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said Israelis should "avoid non-essential visits" to Turkey - once Israel's closest regional ally - or be especially vigilant and steer clear of anti-Israel demonstrations.

Israeli forces backed by tanks and warplanes July 18 pushed into the edges of Gaza in a major operation to destroy Hamas tunnels that the Palestinian Islamist group warned was doomed to fail.

With less than a month to go to the presidential polls, one has every right to evaluate the statements, policies and positions of any contender – on either internal or external issues – through the prism of the upcoming elections.

The Israeli military has announced a rocket fired by Hamas in Gaza killed an Israeli civilian as the first fatality in the latest fighting, hours after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan questioned the lethality of "the Hamas bombs."